She was beautiful, stunning, all in all, breathtaking. The way she stood by the window, still, frozen, her mind distant. She always looked so fragile and vulnerable to him, and sometimes, he found himself slightly worried for her well being. She wasn’t his girl, he knew that, but his best friend’s. Was it wrong to show affection?

It wasn’t his fault that Alaric couldn’t be here tonight. It was no one’s. But did that mean she had to stand alone? Definitely not. He approached her and gently placed a hand at the small of her back to get her attention. “Jenna,” he said and smiled. It wasn’t that seductive, suggestive grin she usually knew from him, yet it was charming and sweet.

They’ve never been really close, to say the least, but the young redhead found herself in his attention a lot lately. “Damon,” she replied and turned, stepping back only a little bit to look up at him. A smile graced her lips, too, as he held out his hand.

“No one should be alone on a beautiful evening like this,” he said and tilted his head just a little, the corners of his lips going upwards. “May I have this dance?”

Jenna hesitated. Was it right? Alaric was in the hospital, suffering pain and surely he wished to be with her tonight. But she felt so out of place here, she might as well take the opportunity to not stand out for once. “You may,” she decided and looked up to the older Salvatore brother shyly.

He took her hand in his, guided her to the dance-floor and placed his one hand on her hip, the other made sure she was standing in the correct posture. He chuckled softly at how clumsy she was, but that was exactly what he liked about her. Maybe not in the romantic kind of way, but in — no, he didn’t know in which way.

All he knew was that he liked it; that he liked her.

(via jenna-sommers)